


I'm Coming, Wait for Me

by SleepyWoofles



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Found Family, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Rescue Missions, Spoilers for Episode 97, because you can rip that trope from my cold dead hands, but it's alright i promise, but maybe it'll be fine haha right lads, like we all know that's coming, not graphic depictions of violence but not sunshine and rainbows either, oh boy okay, set post-guac island but i'm not sure exactly when, so Essek's gonna get caught eventually right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25774399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyWoofles/pseuds/SleepyWoofles
Summary: Essek receives a message as he's marched out of the dynasty for what he's done, and though he doubts there's really any chance of saving him now, he asks anyway. He ends up quite thankful for those quick 25 words.
Relationships: The Mighty Nein & Essek Thelyss
Comments: 4
Kudos: 110





	I'm Coming, Wait for Me

His hands hit the dirt as something impacts on his back. It couldn’t have been any bigger than the hilt of a sword, but that wasn’t exactly reassuring. He couldn’t see, but he could hear. Four sets of echoing footsteps, including his own. It sounded like some sort of stone or clay, but that was all he really had the ability to make out. It certainly wasn’t the subtle  _ click, click _ sound of shoes through the halls of the Lucid Bastion, and just a moment ago it felt like they were outside. It left him with no information to go on, and chains around his wrists.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t expected this, he knew they would learn of what he did eventually. He hoped they wouldn’t, but he knew better than to hope. At first, when they showed up at his door, he had struggled against it. Now he simply walked along, though he still tried to listen for any chance he had to bolt. 

He lost track of how long they had been walking a while ago now. There was little he wouldn’t give to have Caleb’s memory at this moment, just to know how far he had left to come up with anything. There was little he wouldn’t give to have any of the Mighty Nein with him, if only for a little while.

He didn’t understand what the point in marching him out was either. He never did have the honor of being consecuted, they could slaughter him in the street and he would be gone just the same as he would a hundred miles away from the dynasty. He wondered if it was simply the shame of being forced to walk towards his death that they were after.

A voice interrupts his thoughts and the silence, he feels tears spring up at the sound. If the situation were any different, he might have laughed at how excited he was about a simple Sending spell.

_ Hey, Essek! We just got back, it was super duper tough but we did it because we’re amazing. Want to come for dinner? You good? _

“Help, please, I need—” is all he manages in response before being knocked to the ground again. He hears a few laughs, he recognizes one of them, and he feels the magical influence leave his mind before he has a chance to add anything more. Another message comes through shortly after.

_ Essek? What happened, are you okay? Where are you? Is everything alright? We’ll be there soon as possible, promise. I’m coming, wait for me, okay? _

He coughs in response, not wanting to risk too much. He wants to tell her where he is, but he couldn’t do that without being caught, if he could even figure out where it could be in the first place. He just has to trust her, Jester and the rest of the Mighty Nein would be on the way. It’s almost funny, how adamant he was about keeping them at arm’s length at first, only to need them so desperately now. He just has to trust them, though he had never been one for trust in the past.

He doesn’t know when Jester had messaged him. Hours ago, at least. Certainly not a day, not yet. He hadn’t felt the sunlight burning yet. It had been sunset outside of the dynasty when he had been found out, though with how quickly he lost track of time after that, he had no idea how long he had left now. 

He supposed it didn’t matter how long they walked, not for him at least. He had seen a prisoner walked out before, it took weeks for anyone to return from that march. The only difference was that he wasn’t consecuted, they didn’t have to worry about whether or not a beacon was in range, because he would be dead permanently regardless. He wondered if they only marched him out to make a show of it. If once he was far enough from any dynasty settlements to not raise questions, if that was when they would kill him. If he didn’t have to be taken a hundred miles away, then there was no sense in wasting time and energy on it. 

-

A branch snaps behind him, and even if it was the only note-worthy sound he had heard for days now, he almost pays no mind to it. Until he hears another, further ahead. Until he realizes it was further behind than would make sense for someone escorting a traitor to walk. 

He’s forced to stop suddenly, thrown to his knees with no way to lessen the impact. He hears weapons unsheathing and feels his blood run cold. Whatever the sound was must have set everyone on high alert, and there was nothing they gained from dragging a blindfolded, bound prisoner through a fight.

He recognizes an incantation as a Fire Bolt, followed by a scream above his head. Metal clatters against the same stretch of stone that scraped his palms as he fell.

Everything goes by as nothing but sound. He can hear a battle happening around him, but there’s nothing he can do about it. He feels a hand on his shoulder, and hears a voice as he goes to fight their grasp.

“Essek! It’s me, it’s me!” Jester’s voice explains. She starts mumbling immediately afterwards, and by the time he registers what she’s saying as words, the ground beneath him vanishes and he feels himself pulled away from that spot.

Essek blinks against the sunlight as Jester pulls the blindfold back. He doesn’t recognize where he is, but there’s walls and a roof over his head, and he can’t hear the fight anymore. 

“Oh jeez, uhm—” Jester holds onto the holy symbol she keeps with one hand, and gently places her other hand over a scrape on his cheek— “Are you okay? This should help a little bit, but I can’t really do much until we go to sleep.”

A soft wave of healing energy washes over his cheek, spreading from a warmth on his face to what could have doubled as a hug. “I’m fine,” Essek responds, his voice cracks the slightest bit from not being used for days, “thank you, Jester.”

Jester looks at him like he lost his mind. “You’re  _ fine? _ Essek, you almost  _ died!” _

He stays silent for a second, before simply nodding. 

She huffs at him, crossing her arms for a moment. “You’re worse than Caleb, you know.” She smiles, though it seems like she was trying to fight it. “I can literally resurrect him and he’ll go ‘oh it wasn’t that bad, I’m alright, really!’”

Essek can’t help but smile as well. “That certainly sounds like him.” They both pause for a second as Jester casts another spell, sending a second wave of warmth over wounds Essek forgot he had. “How did you all find me?” 

Jester smiles, this one brighter, more genuine. “You asked for help, did you think we were just gonna leave you like that?” 

He shakes his head in response. “I never said where I was, or what was happening. How did you know?”

She sighs as if the answer should be obvious. “I asked, I just didn’t ask you.” She holds up her holy symbol. “Caduceus asked too, and it took us a while but we figured it out eventually.”

“Right.” is all Essek says after that. Jester tells him that the others should be on their way soon, and so he waits in silence— aside from answering occasional questions from Jester.

-

He jumps slightly as the door opens, nothing noticeable outside of his head snapping up to see who it was, although he has to admit to himself that it was almost embarrassing how scared he was because of one bad experience. He could almost hear Caduceus’ voice in his head chastising him for thinking like that, immediately followed by Caduceus’ actual voice as he steps into the room.

“Everything okay on this side?” 

Essek nods as Jester answers, “No problems! Did any of you get hurt?”

“Nothing we can’t handle.” Beau responds, leaning on the doorway and effectively blocking the entrance for everyone else, who now had to step over her legs to get inside.

Caduceus smiles, “I made sure to take care of them, we’re all fine.” 

Slowly, everyone else filters into the room. Jester had explained that it was where Caduceus had lived before, his family having left on their request to stay safe. He almost didn’t believe they were really as far as the Savalirwood. 

Most of them keep to the walls, partially due to the limited space they had to work with. Essek absolutely couldn’t believe that this glorified hut could fit Caduceus’ family, though the patchy boarding on some walls told him it might not have been this small at some point.

Caleb doesn’t stay near the walls the same way everyone else does, he comes and kneels where Essek is sitting, in a way that isn’t unfamiliar. The only difference this time was that Jester was sitting next to him, instead of standing behind Caleb.

“Are you alright?” Caleb’s hand rests on his knee, nothing but worry in pale blue eyes.

Essek nods again, the same way he had the past what felt like hundred times he had been asked that. “I’m fine, I have Jester to thank for that.”

Caleb chuckles lightly. “Don’t we all.” 

Essek rests a hand over Caleb’s on his knee, looking up to address the Mighty Nein as a whole. “Thank you. I… cannot tell you how much you’re risking by doing this, I would be lying if I said I truly felt like I deserved it.” He holds up his hand as some of them— namely Beau, Fjord, and Caleb that he can see— go to argue. “That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. I owe all of you so much.”

Beau shrugs, and shifts so that she’s leaning a bit more forwards. “You don’t owe us shit, if I can be entirely honest here, you’re lucky this happened today instead of a few weeks ago.”

He immediately looks to the ground. Of course she didn’t trust him, he had given her no reason to.

“I didn’t trust you at all, I’m not gonna lie to you.” Beau continues, he sees her lean back out of the corner of his eye. “Caleb changed my mind. You two have a lot in common, actually, and I know I can trust him, so maybe you aren’t so bad.”

Essek mumbles another “Thank you,” and holds Caleb’s hand a bit tighter. Jester’s hand rests on his shoulder, a comforting weight to tell him she’s still there.

“We know you can do really good things, Essek.” Jester explains, he braves a glance up and gets a smile as a reward. “But you can’t do those things if you’re dead, and also we’d miss you a whole lot and we’ve lost enough friends.”   
Friends. The word echoes in Essek’s head. They were his friends, weren’t they? Why else would they come out here, why risk their lives to save him? He had nothing left to offer them, and yet they came. He asked for help, and they came.

Still, he asks, “What does this mean? What… What do w— What do I do now?”

Fjord leans forward just enough to be off the wall. “You come with us, if you want. We could always use a quick teleport, you know.” His smile says that he’s joking, and Essek lets himself genuinely laugh. It had been a while since he last did that.

“I think I can do that, if you’ll have me.” He glances at everyone else, getting smiles or nods in response.

“Well,” Veth steps up to stand beside Caleb, leaning on him as she spoke, “it wouldn’t really be us if we weren’t on the run from someone, would it?” She turns to Essek, a crooked smile on her face that reminds him of before she was a halfling again. “Welcome to the Mighty Nein, Essek.”

He smiles back at her, though his was much more brief. “I hope I don’t let you all down.”

“You couldn’t.” Caleb stands up, then holds out a hand to pull Essek up as well. “You could never let us down, I promise you that.”

“We should be going.” Caduceus smiles at him. “We’ve got work to do, and your help would be appreciated, if you’d be willing.” 

Essek takes a step towards the door, though it’s crowded, it’s nice to walk by his own will again. “Of course, it’s the least I can do after all you’ve done for me.”

Fjord nods at him, “Then let’s go,” turning to the door, he adds, “Yasha, anything?”

A quiet “No” sounds in response, and Beau steps back from the door to let them past.

“Then off we go, to whatever adventure awaits us.” Caleb shoots Essek a smile, and he smiles back

He walks out of the Savalirwood with the rest of the Mighty Nein— his friends, by his side.


End file.
